


Help

by BlackCrowQueen



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Emil Is a Good Stupid Lad, F/M, Subtle Mutual Crushing, Tuuri Is Stressed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-02-07 06:41:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18615217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackCrowQueen/pseuds/BlackCrowQueen
Summary: When the engine breaks down Emil does what little he can to assist Tuuri, and sometimes that's enough. (Takes place early in Chapter 15.)





	Help

**Author's Note:**

> I really am kayaking this ship huh. So be it.

Step, step, step, turn. Step, step, step, turn.

Emil watched Tuuri pace back and forth in front of the engine that had broken down _again_. She held her chin in thought, her face contorted in an uncharacteristic frown. Occasionally she’d mutter something in Finnish, the wheels in her head cranking wildly while the tank’s certainly were not.

Emil’s chest started to tighten. He didn’t like seeing her act this way, on top of the entire… situation they were in. “C’mon, you’re the mechanic, right? Surely you can fix it again,” he said.

She sighed. “Easier said than done. I've checked the battery, the patches we made underneath, the oil levels, the fuel injectors…” She glared at the thin plume of smoke that had been continuously coming out of the engine, as if she could make it stop if she stared hard enough.

Tuuri had spouted out mechanical terms before, and usually they went right over Emil's head. He was a Cleanser, and if fire or gasoline wasn't involved, he left it for somebody else. If he couldn’t help with the engine, he could at least stand guard. Just as he was turning his attention back to the forest, Tuuri's voice piped up.

“You're all about burning things, right? Do you have any ideas on what might be causing this?” She leaned against the edge of the tank, motioning to the smoke.

“Wh- no, I'm not a mechanic,” he grimaced.

“I know you're not! I'm just-” She pressed her fingers against her temple; for a second she looked like she was gonna cry. She took in a big breath, her face relaxing somewhat. “…My brain is fried. I need someone with a fresh mind to look at it. Please…”

His chest tightened again. He really didn't know how much help he'd be, but how could he say no to that? “Okay…” he said.

“Thanks,” she sighed. She moved over a bit as he walked up, and took her turn to glance around at the surrounding forest as he looked at the engine.

Emil tried to ignore the overwhelming system of wires and pipes and just focus on the engine block. The smoke was coming out of one side, sometimes thin and sometimes thick, but constant. “Sooo you said it wasn't the oil…or the gas,” he said at length.

“Yeah,” she said, still leaning on the grill and looking out to the woods. She glanced at him, and the corners of her mouth twitched up seeing his face scrunched in thought.

_What else could generate heat? Could burn something?_ he thought. In his peripheral he caught Tuuri rubbing her hands together in the cold air to warm them. He shot up, pointing at her hands. “Is there something that would grate together in the engine?”

“Huh?” She instinctively glanced at her own hands before looking back up. “Oh, yeah, obviously,” she smirked. She blinked, and then gasped. “The coolant!”

Tuuri jumped back on the small crate that she used as a step stool. Sure enough, the coolant level was lower than she hoped. Her face furrowed with worry, she methodically unscrewed the engine head off. It was a lengthy process, and Emil had to help her lift it off when she was done. But she immediately got a good look inside the engine.

“ _Paska_ ,” Tuuri muttered.

“What?” Emil said, not really seeing anything, the mass of metal still as confusing to him as ever.

“The head gasket is blown,” she moaned. She pointed to a crack in the metal near some circular sections of the engine. It was about a centimeter wide, and the metal around the crack was charred black.

“Oh.” He had no idea what a head gasket was, and honestly the gap in the metal looked small enough to be trivial, but judging by how Tuuri defeatedly ran her hand through her hair, making her bangs look like a bird’s nest, he guessed it was a bigger problem than it appeared.

Seeing his confused and worried expression, she explained, “The head gasket is a seal that separates the coolant from the cylinders of the engine where the firing happens. But now it looks like coolant is getting in there because of the crack. It could be messing with the air-to-gas ratio or mixing with the oil. It’s… not good.”

Emil nodded slowly. “It’s… fixable right?”

“Oh, of course, but the only real way _to_ fix it is to replace the whole thing which, heh, y’know, we don’t _have_ ,” she said, leaning against the tank, bitter sarcasm peeking from her voice. They had been able to scavenge small miscellaneous parts from old cars lucky enough to be hidden away from most exposure and rusting, but fixing an engine part of a military grade vehicle would be impossible out here. Tuuri had considered it a miracle they had a toolbox given their tiny budget.

“The only thing I can really do is weld the crack together,” she said, gazing at the ground. “It won't be a perfect seal, but if we're lucky it’ll last a couple days.” She tried putting on a small smile. “It’s better than nothing.”

“Sure… if you think it’ll get the tank running,” Emil mumbled. He followed her as she went to the back of the tank to get the welder. A wave of sympathy went over him, and he wondered how much better Tuuri could do her job if she had a whole workshop at her disposal, instead of being in the middle of nowhere.

Tuuri made quick work of welding the head casket, but screwing the engine head back on was just as a meticulous process as taking it off. Most of Emil’s attempts at small talk were met with hums, Tuuri being abnormally quiet as she focused, so he was left to watching the woods again. A cool breeze blew through their hair, foretelling the arrival of more rain soon as winter fought for control with spring. The monotony of grass and trees was only broken by the occasional bird, so Emil kept catching himself wanting to watch Tuuri instead. But he steeled himself to stand guard.

Finally, everything was screwed on, and Tuuri topped off the coolant as much as they could spare. She wiped her gloves off with a rag and called out, “Okay, Mikkel! Fire it up!”

The engine revved a couple times, sounding like dying hyena, before coming back to life with its new “crappy” grinding idle. Tuuri let out a big sigh; Emil even let out the breath he didn’t realize he had been holding. They could hear a couple faint cheers from inside the tank.

Mikkel peeked his head out. “Good work, Tuuri,” he smiled, before disappearing inside.

Tuuri reached up and hugged Emil, her facemask brushing against his head. Before he could even think about hugging her back, she let go.

“Thank you,” she said, looking at him, her face tinted pink.

“Uh- yeah,” Emil said, still a bit stunned. “Though I didn’t really do anything…”

“But you did.” She stood there for a beat, then hurriedly closed the hood, scooped up her toolbox and step stool, and scampered in.

Emil ran a hand through his hair, swallowed the small blush appearing on his face, and followed her.

**Author's Note:**

> I did a lot of research on what can cause an engine to catch fire (hint: there's a lot.) So I picked something that fit most of the symptoms showed in-comic, would be......relatively fixable short-term, and would cause more problems down the road. But really it could've been anything, or more likely a culmination of things. I'm not an engine expert. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
